Part 1: File-> New Project

Tailspin Spyworks demonstrates how extraordinarily simple it is to create powerful, scalable applications for the .NET platform. It shows off how to use the great new features in ASP.NET 4 to build an online store, including shopping, checkout, and administration.

This tutorial series details all of the steps taken to build the Tailspin Spyworks sample application. Part 1 covers Overview and File/New Project.

You can use either Visual Studio 2010 or the free Visual Web Developer 2010 from http://www.microsoft.com/express/Web/. To build the application, you can use either SQL Server or the free SQL Server Express to host the database.

The "Scripts" folder serves as the repository for client side JavaScript files and the core jQuery .js files are made available by default.

The "Styles" folder is used to organize our web site visuals (CSS Style Sheets)

When we press F5 to run our application and render the default.aspx page we see the following.

Our first application enhancement will be to replace the Style.css file from the default WebForms template with the CSS classes and associated image files that will render the visual asthetics that we want for our Tailspin Spyworks application.

After doing so our default.aspx page renders like this.

Notice the image links at the top right of the page and the menu items that have been added to the master page. Only the "Sign In" and "Account" links point to pages that exist (generated by the default template) and the rest of the pages we will implement as we build our application.

We're also going to relocate the Master Page to the Styles directory. Though this is only a preference it may make things a little easier if we decide to make our application "skinable" in the future.

After doing this we'll need to change the master page references in all the .aspx files generated by the default ASP.NET WebForms pages.

Installs powered by the Microsoft Web Platform Installer

The product(s) you are about to install leverage the Web Platform Installer (WebPI) for installation. By downloading and using the Web Platform Installer (WebPI), you agree to the license terms and privacy statement for WebPI. This installer will contact Microsoft over the Internet to retrieve product information. WebPI uses the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), which is turned on by default, see privacy statement for more information. Some of the Microsoft software obtained through WebPI may use CEIP. To view which software uses CEIP, see here.